Is 'modern' tennis training as fabulous as is billed to be?

According to the video below at frame 2:30 and in almost every exercise with weights it is obvious that all the talk about how improved is the training of top tennis players is a bunch of hogwash!

The video sequence you are about to see is filmed in no less than the 'Cathedral' of Swiss Tennis at no less than the 'National Leistungszentrum (High Performance Center) in Biel -Switzerland' with instruction provided by a Swiss Tennis Federation trainer.

Tennis TV experts, journalists, columnists and the whole media band wagon, constantly try to drum onto our heads how much better tennis players are today and how many advances have been made in the physical training of athletes. After watching the training video from Roger Federer I have to scoff at all of that verbose and in some instances even have to laugh.

First, there is not a single sequence in Roger Federers training that was not used 30, 40 and even 50 years ago, with different equipment but the same result.

Second, if Harry Hopman watched the sequence of footwork training from Federer, he would get the trainer out of the court! Yep, Harry Hopman was indeed an exceptional Coach, media 'experts' lauding today's tennis training did not see Harry Hopman in a real training session!

Third, exercise with weights in apnea* (at frames 2:30 in this video and in almost all exercises with weights) it is absolutely ridiculous and definitely not an advance in training as it is so much lauded by media experts.  Anyway if the Nr. 1 tennis player in the world is still alive and it works, who cares if one could get a mild or even serious lung, brain or heart injury because of improper breathing while exercising!

*Apnea, apnoea, or apnœa (Greek: to breathe) is a term for suspension of external breathing. Under normal conditions, humans cannot store much oxygen in the body. Prolonged apnea leads to severe lack of oxygen in the blood circulation. Permanent brain damage can occur after as little as three minutes and death will inevitably ensue after a few more minutes unless ventilation is restored. However, under special circumstances such as hypothermia, hyperbaric oxygenation, apneic oxygenation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, much longer periods of apnea may be tolerated without severe consequences. (Wikipedia.com)

Once you observe the video below as I did, your view of the training in the modern tennis game will change.

For me the following is no surprise:

-Why Roger Federer plays tennis with is head-sideways.

- Why most tennis players can not volley in tune with their baseline games (RF included)

-Why tennis players are afraid to serve and volley (even when it is the obvious thing to do)

- Why most of them have no idea how to mount an attack and if they do they will do it cross court 8 out of 10 times (when the opposite should be the case!).

Still according to the 'experts' tennis players today are fitter and better technically then ever!

Sure they may be fitter and it would never come to my mind that tennis players and the least of all Roger Federer, would ever cross the line and take performance enhancing drugs to boost physical, mental and tennis performance.

Nevertheless, after seeing the video and realizing how much of a cottage industry tennis training is over all, I would be very curious to know what the World Anti-Doping Agency thinks about performance enhancing drugs like EPO - HGH. These in particular due to difficulties in testing have not been properly controlled in tennis for the last 25 years.

EPO for example provides an undetectable boost of up to 50 percent in athletic performance! (24 hrs after injected is undetectable!) MAMA MIA! MAMA MIA!

However it is totally irrelevant that a study by Rice University scientists and other studies reveal that EPO 'In this later circumstance the individual develops anemia as a result of the body’s reaction against repeated EPO injections.'

In spite of that, it is inconclusive that in clinical studies since 2002 in the New England Journal of Medicine Thirteen such cases were described by Casadevall et al conclude, 'Evidence indicates that recombinant EPO can induce pure red cell aplasia' Pure Red Cell Aplasia

It also proves absolutely nothing that other studies conclude that mononucleosis is a form of blood anemia and or aplasia.

Notwithstanding this studies, it does not in any form shape or way make me think that these cases of mononucleosis in tennis sited below, are due to the use of EPO, because I do not believe that tennis players would ever cheat to increase their performance. Besides, mononucleosis can be an infection that can also be caused by the Epstein-Barr virus. Therefore this alarming situation must be just a complete aberration and anyway the ATP, WTA and ITF would never let anyone get away with such blatant cheating, if there was any!

Here is a list of cases of mononucleosis in tennis:

After considering the ethics and impeccable behavior that is expected from players by the ATP, WTA, ITF and WADA, it is obvious to me that fate, hard luck, probably poor dieting and inadequate training methods, befell all of these tennis players and none of these cases of mononucleosis are a consequence of EPO abuse, but rather the price you pay to push your bodies to the limit of the possible and the impossible. 

So, if the 'experts' are correct and players are fitter then ever, why are so many players victims of mononucleosis?  Why does a Federer at around 20 years old train weights in apnea?

This leaves me with three simple answers:

- One, the overall training and diet of these players is poor, or they would not get anemia.

- Two, some trainers obviously do not know the most basic elements of training (breathing for example).

- Three, all this does is to re-enforce my idea that tennis training is still a cottage industry with plenty of question marks left and one of them is, how much better trained really are the tennis players of today?

!!WARNING!! Athletes and fans DO NOT get tempted by the benefits of EPO use! EPO was created for persons in need of Medical treatment NOT FOR ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE!

 EPO can kill you! It has killed approximately 18 pro cyclists in the past fifteen years! (Written in 2005 EPO)

EPO Medical side effects:

- EPO commonly "thickens" blood which causes additional circulatory strain as well as damming (clotting) in smaller blood vessels.
- Elevation of blood pressure
- Sudden death during sleep
- Pure red-cell aplasia (a condition which, though rare, can lead to permanent blood transfusion dependency).
- EPO use is dangerous as it stresses elements in the circulation and quite often is sufficient to precipitate systemic failures that otherwise would function normally under natural levels of stress.

Minor side effects include: diarrhea, dizziness, headache, itching, muscle aches and pains, nausea, pain at the site of injection, tiredness, or vomiting.

Nothing can replace plain good hard training, it is the reason why we do sports, to extend the limits of our capabilities in an honest clean way.

Stay away from drugs!

Hope you enjoyed!

Sergio Cruz 

Questions About Tennis Anyone? Feel free to ask, if I can not answer myself, I will research and find the solution to your question. Write directly to me at, cruze (@) bluewin.ch

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